Agrihood Residence
Middlebrook Agrihood is a planned, walkable community located in Cumming, Iowa, just 20 minutes from Des Moines. Its mission is to connect residents with the land, encourage healthy lifestyles, and build community through agriculture and farm-to-table experiences. Brandy and Mosa Shayan commissioned a landscape as a place to live, raise a family, and celebrate community.
The brief came with few creative restrictions and a clear list of requirements. The surrounding landscape felt raw in a newly constructed, still-developing neighborhood. Most folks had plenty of turf and a few standard shade trees that came with every lot. The wind blew freely. It was clear from our initial conversation that the newly laid sod was a temporary solution, even as we needed to save some in the backyard for soccer games. What does a prairie look like when transformed into a highly visible corner lot? Curb appeal matters, but so does privacy and a sense of individual identity. The HOA permitted architectural uniqueness, though most homes respected traditional farmhouse style and proportions. I kept thinking of Dutch garden designer Henk Gerritsen’s axiom: "What is straight should be curved, what is curved should be straight." These questions and discoveries culminate into an overarching theme: creating a landscape in a modern agrihood that challenges the conventions of its agricultural history and current development. Even a 1930s aerial photo shows this parcel was once farmland, which remained until shortly before being subdivided for residences in the early 2020s. How does this intervention join the story of this place?
Our first act of site development was to reserve space for soccer games. The remainder of the property would be planted in phases over the next two years. The bedlines were drawn with generous, gentle arcs to give the appearance of the house set in the garden instead of trimming it with a foundation planting. Quercus rubra (northern red oak), Amelanchier arborea (downy serviceberry), Populus tremuloides (aspen), and other native shrubs became bones and boundaries, new forms. A gathering space leaves room for a future fire pit and grilling off the deck. The meadow replaced the existing turf between the boundaries of the house and the sidewalk, transected by a sinuous path leading from the driveway across the front sidewalk towards the gathering space. A signature bur oak (Urban Pinnacle®) marks the corner of the property.
The planting mimics spatial patterns of native tallgrass prairie species. In these late summer images, Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’ serves as a seasonal hub around which many other spokes revolve. Solidago nemoralis (gray goldenrod) appears in clusters of seven to nine individuals, rhythmically following the path in a 5-3-1 pattern. Liatris aspera (rough blazingstar) weaves sinuously between those clusters. The photos illustrate the planting at approximately one year old, demonstrating how initial density and diversity can produce dramatic biomass with functional, high-performing results. The planting consists of nearly 60 species, 94% native to Iowa and the upper Midwest.
